Peter Ellenshaw - Writer

Special Effects Technician.
Nationality:
British.
Born:
London, England, 24 May 1913.
Military Service:
Royal Air Force during World War II.
Family:
Married c. 1942, son: the special effects man Harrison Ellenshaw.
Career:
Worked as special effects man for Alexander Korda from mid-1930s; worked
for Walt Disney from early 1950s, until 1953 in England, then in the
United States: also worked on Disney television films and Disneyland
rides; also a painter: regular exhibits at Hammer Gallery, New York.
Awards:
Academy Award, for
Mary Poppins
, 1964, and
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
, 1971.

Peter Ellenshaw

Films as Special Effects Technician:

1940

The Thief of Bagdad
(Powell, Berger, and Whelan)

1946

A Matter of Life and Death
(
Stairway to Heaven
) (Powell and Pressburger)

1947

Black Narcissus
(Powell and Pressburger)

1950

Treasure Island
(Haskin)

1951

Quo Vadis
(LeRoy)

1952

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men
(
The Story of Robin Hood
) (Annakin);
The Sword and the Rose
(Annakin)

1953

Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue
(French)

1954

20,000 Leagues under the Sea
(Fleischer);
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
(Foster)

On ELLENSHAW: articles—

Culhane, John, "The Remarkable Visions of Peter Ellenshaw,"
in
American Film
(Washington, D.C.), September 1979.

Movie Maker
(Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire), March 1980.

* * *

Peter Ellenshaw made a career out of mixing fantasy with reality to make
make-believe worlds come to life and also, conversely, mixing reality with
fantasy to allow the real world to enter into animated or make-believe
environments. He began his career in 1934 as a matte artist and was an
assistant to W. Percy Day, an early advocate (and possibly the inventor)
of matte painting in Europe. Ellenshaw worked for several British
directors—including Michael Powell—painting fanciful
backgrounds that would have been too expensive to build as sets. He
provided the matte painting and the hanging miniature that represented the
blue and pink city of
The Thief of Bagdad
and the matte painting of the heavens in
A Matter of Life and Death
. He also worked on all of Alexander Korda's films.

Because Disney Studios had a large sum of revenues in England which they
were not able to transfer stateside, they decided to open a production
company in England. In 1948, when they established their British branch,
Disney began to make period feature movies with English actors. Their
first films were
Treasure Island
,
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men
,
The Sword and the Rose
, and
Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue
. Ellenshaw, joining Disney at this time, worked on all four. He began as
a matte artist and special effects artist, and later in his career became
a production designer. It was the start of a long association. Over the
next four decades, Ellenshaw worked on the largest and most-challenging
projects the Disney studios made—and won two Academy Awards for his
work.

When Disney decided to make
20,000 Leagues under the Sea
, Ellenshaw moved to Hollywood to work on the film. This was
Disney's most ambitious film thus far. The story called for
spectacular special effects, underwater filming, and location shooting far
from the studios—not to forget the most important special effect,
the designing and building of the giant squid.

While Ellenshaw continued to work on other well-known films such as
Pollyanna
,
Swiss Family Robinson
, and even the blockbuster,
Spartacus
, it is his work on
Mary Poppins
that is the best known. Filming
Mary Poppins
was a feat only the Disney studio could accomplish. First, the Disney
creators were coming from the world of animation and they had a different
slant on storytelling. Second, they had a history of successful special
effects. For
Mary Poppins
, they incorporated wonderful adventures in flying or racing that defied
logic and merged the worlds of dream and reality. Ellenshaw's
special effects became one of the great delights of the film.

Ellenshaw's special effects are an intrinsic part of the Mary
Poppins story. For the gravity-defying special effects, the flying effects
used for
The Absent-Minded Professor
, a black-and-white movie, were adapted to color film. The flying effects
enabled fantasy to enter the real world as Mary Poppins arrives from
somewhere above with an umbrella keeping her aloft, as the wind blows hard
and carries away all the other nannies; Ed Wynn floats to the ceiling
every time he laughs; and pieces of paper float up the chimney. All seems
effortless and real, indeed a mix between fantasy and reality. The real
mixes with fantasy as Dick Van Dyke dances with cartoon penguins, and
carousel horses come to life to run a race which, of course, Mary Poppins
wins. The mattes used to create the rooftop scenes to the "Step in
Time" sequence are breathtaking. For his work on this film,
Ellenshaw won his first Academy Award.

Ellenshaw later won his second Academy Award as art director for
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
and was also nominated for another Academy Award as production designer
on
The Island at the Top of the World
.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
was filled with special effects and many critics felt that they were the
redeeming factor of the movie. Many of the special effects were similar to
those in
Mary Poppins
: a bedstead flies like a magic carpet, animation is nicely mixed with
live action, and the characters ride into seven fantastic worlds.

The Island at the Top of the World
is a story set in 1907. An Englishman commissions a spaceship to take him
to a mythical, arctic Shangri-La. Ellenshaw produced splendid visual
effects for the authentic looking Viking settlement and mysterious valley
on the edge of the volcano. Many critics again felt that the special
effects redeemed the movie.

For Disney's super-production
The Black Hole
, Ellenshaw was asked to come out of retirement to be the production
designer and special effects director. This was the largest project
attempted up till that time by Disney. It was also important work for
Ellenshaw who would later see his work on
The Black Hole
as part of an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. The sets are
eye-catching, almost distracting. For the interior of the Spaceship
Cygnus, Ellenshaw achieved a dated modern look by borrowing from Chagall
and Mondrian. Inside, it is comfy, not austere. There are big picture
windows replacing the usual small portholes. Bunks beds have space art
hanging on the walls. The ambience is friendly and inviting.

Ellenshaw exclusively used mattes in
The Black Hole
—simple mattes as well as complex running mattes—and his son
executed all 150 mattes, a world record. The special effects work on
The Black Hole
is considered to be technically superior to
Star Wars
,
Star Trek
, and
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
, although
The Black Hole
did not attract the same box-office attention. The design of the movie is
considered to be a point of departure from
Star Wars
.
The Black Hole
was Peter Ellenshaw's last movie and a fitting close for someone
who was described as one of the screen's masters of visual effects,
and the film garnered him another Academy Award nomination, for best
visual effects.

—Renee Ward

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